In the current information age, it has often been discussed that proliferation of information technology (IT) can lead to more convenience, efficiency, productivity, enjoyment, etc., in life. The extensive use and development of IT facilities in an enterprise (or other organization) environment, as well as in a home environment, has been accompanied by escalating accumulations of electronic data.
There are many instances in which a user (that is, anyone having access to such electronic data) may have a need to search for specific data in a world of heterogeneous data. Such task can be daunting even if a search engine is used. Typically, search tools operate based on one or more keywords, or free text, supplied by the user. Such searches can return large numbers of results, depending on the specific keywords used. However, the results still need to be reviewed for relevancy, since keyword match does not necessarily correlate to relevance. Further, there is generally a remaining concern that the most relevant data is not in the returned results (because the appropriate keyword or free-text for obtaining such data was perhaps not used).
There remains a need for an improved approach for managing electronic data that allows a user to readily reference and/or obtain relevant electronic data, and alleviates the concern that the relevant data has not been found and/or identified.